TRENTON — A former nurse at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton pleaded guilty today to stealing thousands of prescription and non-prescription pills, state authorities said.

Patricia Bautista, 49, of Oxford, admitted that she stole more than 5,780 pills for drugs such as Percocet, penicillin, ibuprofen and Vitamin D, the state Attorney General's Office said in a news release.

The pills were in containers bearing the name of the correctional facility and were found in Bautista's home in Stroudsburg, Pa., the office said. They were turned over to the New Jersey State Police by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office.

Bautista, a registered nurse employed by the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and assigned to the facility as well as the Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility, pleaded guilty to theft by unlawful taking, the office said.

Under a plea agreement, the state will recommend she be sentenced to 180 days in county jail. She will be required to reimburse UMDNJ $842 for the stolen drugs, must forfeit her job and will be barred from public employment in the state, the office said.